“At this stage, we would have expected to have polled more votes,” he said.

“I’m specifically looking at Sowerby Bridge because that’s my ward and I would have thought that in the boxes we’ve looked at so far, we would have polled more.

“It’s not looking as good as we’d hoped for, it’s not what it was six weeks ago. There’s a definite shift in the way the electorate have chosen to vote.”

Speaking about the campaign, he added: “It was something we relished because we wanted the opportunity to win Halifax, but it’s not over yet.”

Tim Swift, leader of the Labour group on Calderdale Council, said he was treating the polls with caution, but felt “very confident” about Halifax.

He said: “Calder Valley was a very big ask, but we’ve run a brilliant campaign. Let’s wait and see what comes.

“I think Theresa May and the Conservatives have been found out. The way she called the election was very arrogant - there was no need to do it. I think they took the British people for granted.”

He said the Labour campaign gave people a sense of hope.

“Holly after only two years has made a fantastic reputation for herself,” he said. “The amount of recognition, the amount of people that know Holly, who value what she is doing has been amazing after just two years and we think that has made a real difference, whereas the Conservatives have not run a local campaign at all - they’ve tried to rely on Theresa May and it’s all gone wrong on them.”

Josh-Fenton Glynn, Labour’s candidate for the Calder Valley, said: “We don’t know the result, but I think there’s a very clear message that Craig Whittaker had a 4,000 majority coming into this, he’s either going to have a vastly reduced majority or he’s not going to have one at all and he’s going to have lost the seat, because people want an MP that represents them. Whatever happens, we’re going to continue to hold him to account. If we have won, it’s another clear message that the kind of ideas the Conservatives have for this country, using Brexit for a resettlment of the welfare state whether it’s bringing in a ‘dementia tax’ or cutting people’s benefits, is just not what people want to see.”

Rob Holden, Independent candidate for the Calder Valley, said the seat was looking “very, very” close between Josh Fenton-Glynn and Conservative Craig Whittaker.

He said he thought it was a shame that the general election had been turned into a ‘presidential’ style election.

“People haven’t been voting for the local candidates, they have been voting for either Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn,” he said.

“We’ve seen that tonight in the polls. I’ve never seen such a two-horse race in the general election in the Calder Valley for a long, long time.

“I think it could be a much smaller majority, but I do think it could go to Labour.”

A representative from Craig Whittaker’s team described the Calder Valley race as “knife-edge stuff” and said: “We cannot call it.”

“It will be what it will be, people choose, it’s a democratic result and that’s how it has to be. I think the expectations were a bit different with Halifax, there was a hope it could swing our way and if it’s not looking like it is then that’s going to be slightly disappointing if that’s not what it proves to be.”

Kieran Turner, Green Party candidate for the Calder Valley said the campaign had been “really worthwhile”.

He said: “Although it has been a weird election, with hard to predict results, the themes have been really heartwarming for us, because the themes have been very generous and unselfish.

He added that he hoped the Calder Valley would “get something better than Mr Whittaker”, adding that he did not believe he had shown respect to local people.